Pros and cons of RightTrack or SnapShot devices
Insurance companies are starting to offer discounts if you plug one of their devices, often called a RightTrack or SnapShot, into your car’s ODB2 port. One of my college buddies asked me about them...
View ArticleDigiland DL718M tablet: a review
The Digiland DL718M tablet is an inexpensive (sub-$40) tablet sold at consumer electronics stores like Best Buy. Make no mistake, it’s a basic tablet for basic needs. But given reasonable expectations...
View ArticleGary Kildall’s death investigation
I was selling computers at retail when I heard of Gary Kildall’s death. We had a few copies of Wordstar for Windows and someone asked about it. I said it was easier to remember the keyboard shortcuts...
View ArticleCommodore C64 vs C128
The Commodore 128 was introduced in 1985 as an upgrade path from the Commodore 64, the most popular model of computer of all time. The 128 was intended to address the biggest shortcomings of the 64...
View ArticleMy first blog post for Qualys
A chance conversation with a Qualys customer a few weeks ago veered off topic really fast, but it led to another conversation, which caught a manager’s attention and led to my first blog post for...
View ArticleC64 vs. Apple II
The C64 vs. Apple II was perhaps the most epic battle of the 8-bit era. Both companies sold millions of machines, yet both nearly went out of business in the process. Comparing the two machines with...
View ArticleSolve the Java problem
I met with a client earlier this week who asked me to go over their vulnerability scans for a bit of a sanity check. He asked some important questions, but one in particular seems worth sharing. What...
View ArticlePodcasts I listen to
Yesterday, after reading a post in which I cautioned about a popular security podcast, someone asked me what podcasts I do listen to. I wrote this up a long time ago and never posted it for some...
View ArticleRepair a Marx reverse unit
When it comes to Marx repairs, the reverse unit is the end of the innocence. Motor repairs are rather easy; reverse unit repair can be as hard as you want it to be. I’ll share some things I do that...
View ArticleMarx train sizes
Over the years, Marx made electric and clockwork trains in no fewer than seven sizes. Depending on how you count, you can say it was more than that. Here’s an overview of what they made. Joy Line....
View ArticleCommodore 64 vs. VIC-20
The C-64 and VIC-20 look a lot alike, and shared some of the same designers, but there are a number of differences between these two vintage computers. The post Commodore 64 vs. VIC-20 appeared first...
View ArticleHow I set up office hours in Google Voice
If you have a side business, you need to offer customer service, but it’s also perfectly reasonable to not want your phone to ring at 3 a.m. Fortunately it’s easy to set up Google Voice to allow your...
View ArticleHere’s a better laptop than the typical Black Friday specials
If you want a better laptop than the typical Black Friday special, I found just the thing: this Dell Latitude E6420 laptop from Newegg, for $225 (the price is good through Sunday, Nov. 22). It has...
View ArticleAvailable diameters of tubular O and O27 track
A frequent question, especially for those who are just discovering or rediscovering vintage Lionel and Marx trains is what sizes of track are (or were) available, and how many pieces come to a circle....
View ArticleAnother reason to block fonts at the proxy
Last week Apple released a bunch of patches up and down its product line. One of the vulnerabilities it fixed in OS X was a vulnerability in its font parser. In the past you could mitigate...
View Article‘PC Does What?’ seems doomed to fail
A coalition of Dell, HP, Intel, Lenovo, and Microsoft are trying to figure out how to reverse the downward trend of PC sales, and what they came up with was a marketing campaign called “PC Does What?”...
View ArticleA sports analogy for security
Imagine you’re playing a sport. The sport doesn’t matter. What matters is you’re playing, and so is the opponent, and you have to follow the rules while they don’t. But you still have to prevent them...
View ArticleFlash isn’t Shockwave and Shockwave isn’t Flash
Bad things happen when security pros like me start asking our infrastructure brethren to patch Flash. We get better security, but the Flash upgrade fails enough of the time to cause extra workload, and...
View ArticleThe freedom to fix our stuff
This week the Wall Street Journal ran an editorial about the right to fix our gadgets. It was surprisingly pro-consumer. The author wrote about a friend whose Samsung TV broke due to $12 worth of...
View ArticleThe downside of streaming music
There’s a new rule when it comes to security and privacy: If a service is free, then you’re the product. Actually, come to think about it, the rule isn’t so new. I’m the product when I listen to the...
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